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Technology Roadmap

This document is divided into two main sections. The first provides estimates of future ESD thresholds of semiconductor devices and their potential impact on ESD control practices. These levels are strongly technology and design dependent and need to be periodically revised in the context of advances in the electronics industry. The threshold estimates discussed in this roadmap are intended to reflect the prevailing trends in semiconductor technology as viewed by selected industry leaders. As in previous versions of this document, the emphasis is the integrated circuit (IC) industry. Other major electronics industry segments are also experiencing an increase in ESD sensitivities (lowering of ESD thresholds). Some examples are magneto-resistive (MR) heads (disk read/write heads), optoelectronics (light emitting diodes, lasers and photodiodes) and thin-filmed-transistor-based flat panel displays. However, ESD trend information is not usually readily available for these types of devices and the often standardized ESD tests are not defined or broadly applied.